We've been on a quest to determine which NHL team has the best and worst logos.
Now we're moving onto goalies! We're pitting mask against mask
with the goal of determining the best. And you can vote!
Also check out: Tournament of Hockey Logos

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The word "popularity" has been getting tossed around in the comments a lot lately. Every poll I post is an opinion poll. I want a consensus of opinions on various topics like logos and goalie masks. So the idea that folks are saying you should vote based on aesthetics or any other specific element is, well, wrong in my mind.

In every poll I ask "which is better?" If there were set guidelines to make this determination by, a poll would be irrelevant. We'd simply gather data per the guidelines and come to a logical conclusion. But this is art, for lack of a better term. There is no good and bad, there's only the opinion of the person looking at it. The line about beauty being in the eye of the beholder comes to mind.

That being said, I want to try out an experiment. I want to do a series of "popularity contests" to prove a point as the Tournament of Goalie Masks winds down. I'm starting with the obvious question for a hockey blog. What's your favorite team?

About halfway down the sidebar is a ginormous poll with 30 possible responses. You're to simply select your favorite team and cast your vote. That's it. I'm curious to see who has more fans visiting the blog. So go VOTE NOW!

33 comments:

it really astounds me... i mean, i figured the pens or another equally talented mid-market US team would be ranked higher than vancouver. shows what i know.

funny how leafs and habs fans are getting shredded by the canuckleheads too.

[not as though anyone from the canucks' organization reads this or anything, but my condolences in every regard to the teammates, coworkers and family of Luc Bourdon. A tragic loss, far too early in a blooming life.]

As a resident of the area, I have an idea why Vancouver is on top of the popularity rankings. While the team itself is popular, it might also have something to do with Vancouver being one of the most 'connected' cities in the world. People here are internet junkies. I would not be surprised if the people voting for Vancouver are almost all FROM Vancouver. This is not a criticism, by the way.

Also, Vancouver is pretty much the only show in town, other than the CFL Lions and Whitecaps soccer. It is often said that Vancouver is not a sports city, it's a hockey city.

the fact vancouver is dominating as favorite team and the fact Luongo's mask is winning basically clears it up. His mask is nice but not the best by far. biased votes shouldn't determine the best.

Dominating? We're only at 15%. That means we're up against 85% of voters who are non-fans. If Luongo's mask is so awful, and it's simply Vancouver fans that are pushing him through, then he should have lost every match-up by 70 points.

definitively a popularity test. especially considering [at the time of this comment] the 'nucks are the only team with a percentage of the fans in double digits [16%, i think the pens are closest at 9%]

canucks fans are like a canadian minority government. there are more of us against them, but in little packs and droves...

16% of over 2000 votes is a lot of canuck fans. Accept it, this is a popularity contest. I'm not debating I'm just stating. No big deal.

canucks fans are like a canadian minority government. there are more of us against them, but in little packs and droves...

The problem with these arguments is that Luongo has won his brackets by wide margins of around 20 percentage points and even more. So even if the 15% of Canucks fans were not allowed to vote, and assuming that we all only voted for Luongo, he would still win when only polling non-fans. The only exception being Luongo vs Fleury, in which case, if you remove Canucks' fans you could say that Fleury would only win due to penguins' fans.

Face it, people like Luongo's mask and they should be allowed to. Not everybody has to like the same thing that you do. I personally think that Miller's, Dipietro's and Turco's masks are horrid; but I understand that people have different tastes and I'm fine with that.

And I don't think I'm getting worked up about it; besides, I'm not the one calling on people to form a voting block against Vancouver. I'm justing pointing out that people can't blame everything on Canucks fans. Basically, I've noticed that this blog has devolved into a vancouver bashing session.

i was simply making people aware of the oppurtunity that they had to simply vote against the canucks if they had such a problem with it. i could seriously care less about the results of these polls [particularly the goalie mask one].

i'm a fan of all 6 canadian teams, man. i have nothing against vancouver, i'm simply noting that there is indeed atleast a SLIGHT advantange in these polls for vancouver given that they ALMOST double the fandom of any other SINGLE team... and that i feel this slight advantage is particularly helpful to mr.luongo in relation to this contest.

were you to poll the viewers of this blog as to who their favourite goaltender was, i'm sure roberto would be in the top 3 [top 5 at worst] in this category... consider that if marty brodeur holds another spot in the top 3 favourites, that his mask sucks.

these two facts combined make for a bit of an advantage for luongo. you act as though i'm trying to insult the vancouver canucks, their fans, or the city of vancouver itself.

this is far from the case.i've never been any further west than edmonton, but the only problem i've heard about BC is inflation.

now, i did some research and you claimed earlier that luongo had one most things by a margin of over 20 percent.. here's how it actually broke down.

now take a look at that nice and well... canucks fans account for 16% of the viewership of this blog. luongo won one round by that margin and is winning the current round by the same margin... he beat fleury by 4%, [a slim margin that could be accounted for by the canucks fans high turnout]

the only round he won by more than 16% was toskala, who has either the best mask in the tournament, or the worst, depending on the comments you read in the two rounds he was involved in.

either way, man. i'm not trying to be a jerk, and if i have, i apologize. i'm simply trying to note that even the web has this fancy thing called 'demographics' and they tend to dictate how opinion based information is collected. this is a case of that happening. case closed.

I’m sorry; but I said that he won most of his brackets by “around” 20 and more. It was an approximation. And when the poll result is 58% to 42%, I don’t think rounding to 60/40 is unreasonable. I also was including Luongo’s first round bracket vs Cloutier, which he won 89/11. At any rate, the numbers just prove my point that you have to take the extreme measure of barring Vancouver fans from voting to even make it close, and again, that’s assuming that we’re all voting only for Lou, which we don’t. So while I agree that Luongo MAY have a slight advantage, that’s still not enough to blame us for his wide margins of victories. Otherwise, as I’ve mentioned before, we should have won every logo tournament previous.

And while Luongo’s popularity may also give him an advantage, that’s still not enough otherwise Brodeur should also still be in it. But he’s not; because people don’t like his mask. But they appear to like Luongo’s. At any rate, this argument could be made of DiPietro or Miller, yet I don’t see people calling to vote against them because they’re DiPietro or Miller. And I apologize if you feel that I’m singling you out as that is certainly not my intention. But when you call on people to vote against Luongo even if they like his mask, you have to understand how people can look at it as “let’s-get-back-at-Luo/Van”. I understand that wasn’t your intention, though, and am sorry for implying that.

In the end, as you've said, it's just supposed to be a fun poll and should be taken as such.

wow canucklehead you are getting worked up over nothing. I don't care if it is a popularity vote. I could care less. The fact remains the amount of canuck fans is helping bobby lu win. No big deal. Just like the amount of Oiler fans helped them win the 3rd logo contest. Oh well case closed. sheesh.